.22lr versus soft flak vest

[Spike 7.62 0]

Some fools shot a German flak vest (made 1994) WHILE wearing it with a Ruger 10/22. 

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=105_1394790662

 

 

Honestly I'm surprised it did not penetrate. The wearer still has a nasty wound. When I tested some PointBlank IIIA vests I had, I put fruits inside the vest to observe damage. For all the preppers.. soft armor has a place in your preps, but not for defense against direct fire.

[Krdshrk 3,877]

Wow they're morons...

 

Flak vests weren't made for bullet protection.. they're protection from FLAK.... hence the name.  Flak as in light shrapnel... 

 

Spike - when you tested the IIIA vest - what rounds did you shoot it with and what fruit did you use?  What damage did you observe?

[fishnut 2,358]

If your gona be dumb you gota be tough!

[raz-0 1,259]

flexible body armor needs support behind it to work right. Which is why when they test it, they do so by installing it on a large block of clay. No support, and all sorts of rounds will go through.

[mipafox 438]

Wow they're morons...

 

Flak vests weren't made for bullet protection.. they're protection from FLAK.... hence the name.  Flak as in light shrapnel...

 

Those days are decades past.

 

There was a time when that was true, and I shot a Korea flak vest with a .22 as a kid (it went through).

 

I didn't watch the video, but it sounds like this was a German Military vest made in 1994. It was likely about 30 layers of Kevlar (not ballistic nylon) and NATO CRISAT. Pretty close to Level IIIA. My "Flak Vest" of the late 80s would stop .357 ball or 9mm NATO (++P) out of an SMG barrel at 25 yards or so.

 

In one of the early editions of Dangerous Places by Pelton he told a story of two soldiers in bar in Bosnia (?) pointing at their helmets and their sidearms. It sounded like he didn't understand everything they were saying but realized they were arguing about whether or not their sidearms would penetrate their skid lids.

 

He mused that he knows how this ends, these two drunken morons are going to go out into the alley and start shooting at the helmet, and probably won't even hit it.

 

The guy at the bar that was wearing the helmet drew is Tok, put it to his head, and blew his own brains out.

[1LtCAP 4,264]

Wow they're morons...

 

Flak vests weren't made for bullet protection.. they're protection from FLAK.... hence the name.  Flak as in light shrapnel... 

 

Spike - when you tested the IIIA vest - what rounds did you shoot it with and what fruit did you use?  What damage did you observe?

not to be nitpicky, or argumentative...but i had met a b17 bombadier that kept a piece of flack, that he thought was meant for him. they'd been flying "F"'s, and on this particular mission, they flew a "G". the chin turret jammed. when they'd landed, and the ground guys were doing their thing, they pulled this out of that turret. had the turret not been there, this hero would've died. he still has it. and that dam thing is actually pretty dam heavy for how little it was.

[Spike 7.62 0]

"Spike - when you tested the IIIA vest - what rounds did you shoot it with and what fruit did you use?  What damage did you observe?"

 

 

I shot it with 9mm FMJ, .40s&w FMJ and HP, .45acp FMJ and HP and .44mag FMJ. I think I sacrificed a total of 3 vests. I shot one with at least 60 rounds of 9mm and 40, FMJ and HP trying to spread the hits around the vest and there were no punctures. Then I tried to hit the bullets that were already lodged into the vest to force a puncture. I think the fewest hits it took to force the nose of a bullet to make through the armor was 4, right on the back of each other, and that was 40s&w. I fired at ranges from 20 feet to literally "point blank". One vest I used 44 magnum on, and I fired 3 rounds at it, point blank range, one slug atop the last and they would deflect off to the side rather than penetrate into the armor. The penetration would only start after there was enough of a "ball" of rounds that the bullets were forcing it forward. Even then it was more of a "wearing down" than a poke-thru. I had tomatoes and squash and there would be big dents and lacerations of the vegetable with even the 9mm HP at 20 feet. The larger calibers and shorter ranges were destroying them. At the very end I used my SKS and blew the vests to bits. Surplus FMJ 7.62 was still cutting through both soft armor plates at 40 feet. 

 

In summation, use plates but if IIIA is the best you've got it's better than nothing. It WILL stop multiple .44mag at close range, but the energy will still transfer to your body.

[Krdshrk 3,877]

I'll take a flesh wound and bruise over a bullet through the gut any day.... 

[Spike 7.62 0]

Yes sir me too!